Frog Week and College 101

After their 4 day whirlwind homecoming they had to report into their school for FROG week which is what I affectionately refer to as the “legalized” hazing of the incoming cadets.

The formal name is Freshmen Recruit Orientation Group and they say this is experience will help them “complete the transition from civilian student to military cadet…”

I found it mildly amusing that this article appeared in the Atlanta Journal on the day they left:

College 101 for parents

Here is the text I got from one of the unnamed twins on their first day.

“This sucks I hate it so far”

My response: 🙁

Six days later, we drove up to the college for another ceremony. Let’s see now – that makes three from May to August. High school graduation, basic training graduation and now the FROG week ceremony.

We watched over 200 new cadets lap the drill field for their Sunday morning 3 mile run.

And get hosed off by the local fire truck.

We learned that Rachel Leigh had the highest PT score of all the female cadets.

We are looking into legally changing her name to Roger Leroy. Because we now call her “The Beast” and sometimes just say “You’re The Man.” Luckily, since she is now 18, we don’t think this is damaging her sexual identity. But I’m sure some would argue we are damaging her self-esteem.

Which would be so WRONG. She has NO self-esteem issues.

Congrats to the newest cadets of Charlie Company…

We spent the day with them enjoying a nice lunch and then helping them get their dorm room organized.

Which took about an hour since they have their black trunk, 2 boxes, 6 drawers and a desk.

They’re learning how to live in a simple, clutter-free environment which we think is just fine and dandy!

Our main goal was delivering and setting up the computer.

Thank goodness Scary Baby was there to test everything for them.

Lizzie was able to log on to Facebook after several frustrating minutes of banging on the keyboard and discovering the “R” key sticks.

Phew. All is well with the world.

Now, we just hope they stay and thrive this first semester. I don’t know the current statistic but I do know that many, many freshman college students come home both because they are homesick but more often, it seems, they don’t handle the independence so well – meaning the social aspects are fabulous but they forgot they were also suppose to study!

Social skills are Lizzie’s specialty as evidenced by the trip to the mall she organized as soon as they had free time.

Blurry picture compliments of PhilBillPaul’s cell phone.

Side note: Lizzie…tell Meadows she looks tough.

So here are my big questions to all those moms who have college kids…

How excited were you when they left? Are you still crying? Do you feel like you prepared them well to live away from home? Are you enjoying quiet days at your house?

Leave a comment and let me know – I’m fascinated to hear about everyone’s experiences. I’m pretty sure you can guess how I’m feeling this week. 😉

P.S. Happy Birthday Mom!